Kanye West claims he'll run for president in 2024: 'What y'all laughing at?'

Kanye West said Thursday he would be throwing his name into the race for the White House in 2024.

During a conference at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in New York, the 42-year-old rapper and music producer started off by saying: “When I run for president in 2024, we are going to definitely—” but was caught off by audience laughter.

“What y’all laughing at?” Mr. West barked, before continuing. “When I run for president in 2024, we would’ve created so many jobs that I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.”

“What they’re saying is Kanye’s crazy — one in three African Americans are in jail and all the celebrities are in jail also because they can’t say nothing because they’re so scared,” he added.

Mr. West also discussed changing his name to reflect his billionaire status and his newfound focus on Christianity as demonstrated in his recently released album “Jesus is King.”

“When people say it’s crass to call yourself a billionaire, I say I might legally change my name to Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West for a year until y’all understand exactly what it is. It will be on the license plate,” he said.

This is not the first time Mr. West has floated the idea of pursuing a run for the White House.

In an acceptance speech at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, Mr. West promised he would run for president in the 2020 election cycle.

“I don’t know what I finna’ lose after this. It don’t matter, though; It’s not about me. It’s about ideas. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth,” Mr. West said. “And yes, as you probably could’ve guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”